Steel City 250 Moto 1 Report

As clouds of desolate grey smothered the pristine hillsides of Steel City Raceway the first moto of the 250 Class began with many questions left to be answered. After back-to-back sub-par performances GEICO Honda’s Justin Barcia was facing a must-win scenario at Steel City, while all points leader Blake Baggett needed to do was stay out of trouble.

Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Blake Baggett took the lead early but quickly came under assault from the GEICO Honda duo of Barcia and Eli Tomac along with Ken Rozen. Baggett swiftly fell back to fourth and was never really a factor after the early portion of the race.

The tension of a must-win scenario for Barcia and Tomac showed early as the duo pushed the pace up front, distancing themselves from Roczen. The German would fight back to pull within a couple of seconds of the pair, but faded back down the stretch.

Barcia would stretch his lead, only to have Tomac reel him back in—with Tomac seeming content on sitting patiently behind his teammate waiting for an opportunity. The opportunity would finally present itself right before the two lap board waved. Tomac struck quickly and never looked back from there en route to the moto 1 win. Barcia would hold on for second with Roczen taking home third. Baggett, Marvin Musquin, Malcolm Stewart, Blake Wharton, Alex Martin, Wil Hahn and Kyle Cunningham rounded out the top 10.